Page 61 of Demons in My Bed
I hadn’t heard that. Strange. “Who is it?”
He shrugged. “Some guy. I think his name starts with a B, but I could’ve heard that wrong. You know how the rumor mill works around here.”
Just then, the doors to the gym pushed open and Asrael strutted in, his arm slung over the shoulders of a guy I had never seen before. He was gorgeous. Not that I cared about shit like that, because like I said, revenge. But my traitorous eyes drifted back to the new guy just to find him staring at me. He couldn’t have been that much older than us.
His hair was short, and he was definitely as tall as Hunter. The other girls were going to be all over this dude in a matter of...
“Hi!” A series of greetings were called out by several different female recruits.
I shook my head and stood up, ignoring the flock of girls who had swarmed Asrael and the new guy. So predictable. Why not just suck his dick right now?
Hunter barked a laugh, and some of the girls gave me a dirty look. “What?”
“Didn’t mean to say that out loud, P?” Hunter teased, getting to his feet as well.
“Eh, fuck them. You know there will be dick sucking.” We walked side by side toward the doors and just made it out when a deep voice had us stopping.
“Hey!” I spun around to see new guy jogging over to us, leaving the gaggle of girls open-mouthed and staring daggers my way. “Sorry, I uh, didn’t get your names back there.”
I glanced at Hunter, who was looking smug as fuck. “Sup, bro. I’m Hunter James. Welcome to Montague.”
The guy lifted his chin in that bro way that bros do. “Slade. Slade Porcino.”
I put my hands on my hips and eyed Slade suspiciously. He unsettled me a little, and I wasn’t completely sure why. Was it because he was hot as hell? Maybe. Regardless, I didn’t like it.
“Well, Slade, welcome to Montague,” Hunter said again with a grin. He was always so welcoming and approachable. I wasn’t sure why he even bothered hanging around with me. “This is Palmer. Don’t mind her, she’s kind of a rude asshole at times.”
My head snapped in his direction. “Fuck you, Hunt.” I wasn’t sure what I was more annoyed about, the fact that he gave this dude my name or the fact that he called me a rude asshole. Probably the name thing. I was a bit of a rude asshole, to be honest.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you both. What do you do for fun around here?” Slade asked, and his eyes glittered with anticipation. It had me taking a second look at the guy standing before me. First impressions had led me to believe he was a kiss ass. A golden boy type, with his thick black hair and greenish-brown eyes.
“I guess that depends on what your definition of fun is, Porcino.” I didn’t want to use his first name. We weren’t on that level yet. “And anyway, aren’t you faculty? Hanging around with students doesn’t really seem appropriate.”
He grinned roguishly, and I tried to ignore the way my heartbeat sped up. “I’m not faculty yet. I’m here on an intern basis for six to twelve months. Plus, if you didn’t notice, the other staff aren’t exactly young.”
He wasn’t wrong. He would be the youngest by far. Whatever. If he wanted to hang out with us, it didn’t bother me in the slightest.
“Let’s walk and talk, man. We were headed for the cafeteria. You hungry?” Hunter asked, starting to walk away.
Slade pinned me with his intense gaze. “Actually, yeah. I’m starving.” He walked past me, close enough that I could feel the heat of his body. Not only that, I could sense his power. He was incredibly strong, and with those looks, dangerous as fuck.
Thing was, I was all of those things too.
The crowd grew louder, drawing me out of my head. I realized the focus was on the ring to our left, where one of the fighters was knocked out cold while the other strutted around beating on his chest like Tarzan. Male posturing at its finest.
“I don’t think he’s gonna be waking up any time soon.” Cherry shook her head, then turned back to me. “So? How about karaoke?”
“I’m down.” I reached into my bra and dug out my cell phone. I rattled off my number to her, and a second later, a text came through with just a cherry emoji. Clever. I saved her info and tucked my phone away again.
“We’ll have a good time,” she promised, scanning the room. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Listen, I gotta go. I’ll message you tomorrow. Sorry!” Cherry ran off, her tiny body making it entirely too easy for her to disappear completely. I assumed she saw something she wanted a piece of.
“New here?” A deep voice came from behind me, and I whipped around, feeling for my bunny blades I had strapped to my thigh. The man behind me was pretty damn tall and he felt moderately strong, magic-wise. Though I suspected in a place like this, a lot of people were shielding their true capabilities.
Stars, where are all of these big boys coming from lately? And what’s with the fucking masks?About half of the people in this place were wearing some form of mask.
“You could say that,” I responded, looking back out at the fights.
Only the guy’s eyes were visible beneath his black, leather mask, which had an assortment of silver studs and spikes decorating nearly the entire thing. In the dim lighting, it was hard to tell much about him, other than that he had dark eyes. Even his hair was covered with a hoodie.
